Flavoursome Vegetables by Fennel and Fern

Wednesday, 26th February 2014

What's the point in growing veg that tastes the same as the stuff you can buy in the shops? You can do better, and grow prettier veg while you're at it. Here are Fennel and Fern's top five flavoursome vegetables - and they're good-looking too.

1. 'Golden Sweet' mangetout

These are purple-flowered, yellow-podded peas. You'd grow them even if they didn't have such tender pods or sweet, juicy flesh. But fortunately, they have everything, and so the whole experience is a delight.

2. 'White Queen' tomato

Yes, you can get white tomatoes. And what a lovely big white tomato this is. It has a creamy blush around the stem, which betrays the sweet, slightly creamy taste of the juicy flesh.

3. 'Egyptian' tomato

Like most plum tomatoes, these have a lot of thick flesh, which makes them ideal for cooking. And oh, how fantastic that flesh tastes. It’s a rich, bitter, smoky flavour which becomes even better when roasted and make into passata or slow-roasted into sundried tomatoes.

4. 'Pink Banana' squash

This is about as far from the typical Halloween-style squash or pumpkin as you can get. It's a pink zeppelin-shaped squash with a wonderfully nutty flavour and creamy, juicy flesh. Difficult to beat in terms of size or flavour.

5. Parrot tulip petals

It's not very well-known but you can eat tulip petals. These parrot tulip ones look particularly lovely in a salad and have a superb pea-like flavour and a crunchy texture. Just make sure they're grown without any nasty sprays - and some people can be allergic to them, so try one petal carefully.

There are so many other wonderful rare and tasty veg out there: how about blue potatoes, purple carrots, or white beetroot, for instance?

Fennel and Fern is a blogging collective inspiring gardeners all over the world; a big happy team of organic gardeners who love the soil under their fingernails and munching on thier own homegrown veg. For growing tips and advice on great gardening Click Here.